GREEN’S MOULD
Putting his stamp on Canucks
Ray Ferraro is a razor-sharp analyst.
He picks up game details others often overlook. He knows where the NHL is trending on the ice and what’s happening off it. He knows who runs a bench better than others.
However, he never fathomed that Travis Green, his former New York Islanders teammate from 1992-95, would one day become the 19th head coach of the Vancouver Canucks.
What chance did he give a gifted guy, who had to first reinvent himself just to remain relevant as a player, and then have junior- and minor-league success to become a fair-but-firm rookie NHL coach in his home province?
“Zero,” said Ferraro. “This is the evolution of Travis: Skilled, lazy, challenged, changed, diligent, hard working. Everything Travis is now is not what he was when he broke in as a player. This is why I think he has a chance to be really successful. He understands what a scorer thinks, because he was one. He understands what a guy thinks when he gets kicked in the shins because he got booted.
“He understands what it is to remake yourself and has travelled a wide spectrum to get where he is. You can be the smartest guy in the world, but if you can’t get your message to be understood, it doesn’t matter. As they get older, players appreciate when a coach is direct. It gets your attention. When you’re honest, it buys you collateral. If you want to be a hard ass and don’t communicate and don’t follow through, players smell that in a hurry.”
Fear is a hell of a motivator. The big thing the 46-year-old Green has going for him is how he doesn’t muddle the message. Nothing is lost in translation. Talk to any player and all he wants to know is what’s expected. It started the first day of camp when a drill was stopped and Green barked. It ended with a bag skate.
Green isn’t the first NHL newcomer to crack a whip. But he is his own man.
Whatever you make of Willie Desjardins’ time here — hired to win, reluctant to play the kids and too loyal to veterans — there’s no grey area with Green. Tempo and pace are his buzzwords. And there’s no comfort zone.
Musical lines are proof. The latest had Loui Eriksson with Bo Horvat and Sven Baertschi and Brock Boeser with Alexander Burmistrov and Sam Gagner. Markus Granlund was a fourth-line leftwinger and Jake Virtanen was the odd man out.
“Practices have been hard,” said Baertschi, who also played for Green in Utica and Portland. “We didn’t practise like this last year. Travis is a real competitive person and he cares, but he demands a lot. His feel for players has made him successful so far and his feel for game days really sets him apart.”
The caring part showed when Baertschi arrived in Portland from Switzerland to commence the 2010-11 season. It was his first time in the United States and he didn’t speak English.
“Travis actually came and picked me up at the airport because he knew it was tough for me,” recalled Baertschi.
“I was 16½ and had no idea who he was. He took me under his wing right away and was really supportive. He gave me a chance to adjust and didn’t pressure me right away. But he made me understand what it took to play in the NHL and did it pretty quick.”
That’s a testament to Green’s history on Long Island.
In the 1992-93 season, Ferraro suffered a broken leg and dislocated ankle in Chicago at the end of a breakaway after being run into the end boards by Cam Russell. Not only was Green given an opportunity to play more behind Pierre Turgeon, there was little leeway for Ferraro when he returned.
“There were six games left and in the first three I played really poorly because I had been out for three months,” recalled Ferraro. “Al (Arbour) called me into his office and said: ‘You’ve got three games to get going or you’ll be sitting with Claire (his wife) in the stands.’ What he did there is what I believe Travis has learned. You make it clear, you give an opportunity and then you let the player decide because Travis is direct and blunt with players.”
Jake Virtanen is a prime example of that mantra. But he always knew where Green was coming from. And Green knew where Arbour was coming from.
“Al was really hard on Travis,” added Ferraro. “We went to the semifinals in 1993 and in the second round, Travis played nose-tonose against Mario Lemieux. If anybody had predicted that three years earlier, they would have been thought to be crazy.”
Ferraro was already making his way in the game at 17 when he left Trail in the fall of 1981 to advance his career. It was the same time a 10-year-old minor-hockey magician was doing his thing in Castlegar. And it didn’t take long for word to get around the Kootenays that Green was going to be something special.
How special?
A 51-goal, 102-point season as an imposing centre with the Spokane
Chiefs in 1988-89. A 23rd overall pick in the 1989 draft by the Islanders, who would amass 455 points in 970 career regular-season games with five teams.
Green was good but had to reinvent himself before retiring at age 37. He went from a reliable 25goal scorer to 10-goal checker and shutdown guy. And everything he gleaned along the way caught the attention of Mike Johnston.
He offered Green an assistant position with the Portland Winterhawks in the 2009-10 season and the budding bench boss made his mark in 2012-13. When Johnston was suspended for WHL playerbenefit violations, Green guided the Winterhawks to a 37-8-0-2 run and a WHL championship before losing in the Memorial Cup final.
That earned a four-year run with the Utica Comets and a 2015 Calder Cup final appearance that put Green on the NHL radar.
Johnston, a first-year Pittsburgh Penguins coach, thought so highly of Green that he offered an assistant position before the 2014-15 season. Green chose to run his own AHL bench before eventually transitioning to the NHL as a bench boss. And he was a hot commodity. There was interest in Anaheim and Denver before he eventually landed in Vancouver.
“He trusts his instincts and he has a certain approach with his personality,” said Johnston. “He’s very strong in what he wants to do and is very determined and is going to get the most out of that team. And if Vancouver didn’t take him, several other teams would have wanted a crack at him.”